HP-UX 11i Version 2 May 2005 Release Notes

General System Administration
Node and Host Name Expansion
Chapter 5
126
This product is available on Software Pack (SPK) for HP-UX 11i v2 May 2005. (For more
information about SPK, see “Software Pack (Optional HP-UX 11i v2 Core
Enhancements)” on page 28.)
Summary of Change
Without NodeHostNameXpnd, node names are limited to 8 bytes, and host names are
limited to 64 bytes. With NodeHostNameXpnd, node and host names can be expanded to
255 bytes each.
Impact
This product allows you to set longer node and host names for your HP-UX 11i v2
systems.
Compatibility
If you choose to load only the May 2005 version of this feature, without doing a complete
update to the May 2005 version of HP-UX 11i v2, you must first load the September 2004
version of HP-UX 11i v2.
The default HP-UX system parameters ensure that node and host names do not exceed
the compatible lengths of 8 and 64 bytes, respectively. The NodeHostNameXpnd product
bundle includes a new system tunable parameter by which you can enable the system to
accept node and host names up to 255 bytes in length.
Setting node and host names longer than 8 or 64 bytes, respectively, can cause some
applications that use the node and/or host names to exhibit anomalous behavior or fail.
HP strongly recommends that you understand all NodeHostNameXpnd documentation
(manpages and the “Node and Host Name Sizes on HP-UX” whitepaper) before enabling
the system to accept longer names.
The whitepaper “Node and Host Name Sizes on HP-UX” can be found at
/usr/share/doc/NodeHostNameSize.pdf following installation of the
NodeHostNameXpnd optional product bundle. The whitepaper can also be found on the
Software Pack media at /DOCS/NodeHostNameXpnd/NodeHostNameSize.pdf.
The NodeHostNameXpnd product bundle is supported only on the HP-UX 11i v2 operating
system.
See also “HP Serviceguard” on page 113.
Performance
This product does not affect system performance.
Documentation
The following manpages, and possibly others, have been updated with the
NodeHostNameXpnd product bundle:
• uname (1)
• setuname (1M)
• hostname (1)
• uname (2)